– Written by Elizabeth Farquhar for the Center for Services Leadership In early April, just weeks after communities across the country shut down in an attempt to slow the spread of a frightening new virus, the consulting firm McKinsey polled U.S. consumers about their level of distress. According to the report, “64 percent of respondents …
A recent survey shows just how unsatisfied Americans are with the products and services they buy. The 2020 Customer Rage study, conducted by Customer Measurement Care and Consulting (CCMC) in conjunction with the Center for Services Leadership at W. P. Carey University and Kraft Heinz, shows more than two thirds of households experienced at least …
Business leaders understand what Greek philosopher Heraclitus proclaimed more than 2500 years ago: the only constant is change. But it matters whether that change is evolutionary or explosive, and response to the global health threat that is COVID-19 has produced change of the latter variety. Leslie Paulson leads the Servigistics business unit in the technology …
– Written by Natalie Both for the Center for Services Leadership Herd mentality is a phenomena that can cause people to react irrationally and emotionally to situations they may not normally care about. In times of service failures, the same can occur with customers’ responses. In a setting where multiple customers are affected simultaneously, such …
Online retail has taken over the service industry and with new technology being consistently developed, it is not going anywhere anytime soon. One issue common among online retailers is customers’ perceived quality (PQ) decreasing upon receiving and interacting with the physical product. This ultimately leads to lower customer satisfaction and often causes financial woes for …
When flights are cancelled or a noisy party disturbs hotel guests, financial compensation is an effective and often-used salve to sooth aggrieved customers. Still, some firms try to avoid paying compensation, while others pay too little or not enough to achieve the customer satisfaction impact they seek. A new paper in the Journal of Service …
Welcome to the CSL’s “ServiceFriday”. Each Friday we post three summaries from some of our favorite sources from research literature, news articles, blogs, and more. The posts are curated to cover topics that are interesting, relevant, and thought provoking in the realm of service, business, education, and beyond. If you like our blog and posts, …
How can service providers link convenience to customer satisfaction in order to drive profitability? Research in the Journal of Service Marketing found that search convenience is the most important dimension of overall customer satisfaction. Search convenience means that customers want to find their desired products with little to no effort. Taking that into account, one …
Financial compensation as a means to recover from service failures can serve as powerful tool. However, it is important that practitioners learn the ways in which to do this properly in order to receive the most desired outcomes for service recovery. Research from the Journal of Service Research examines the ways in which financial compensation …
In sum, companies should focus on a stable (and good) service performance level. Such performance level has the best outcomes for customers’ service assessment, and takes much less effort compared to constant adjustments needed in response to peaks and troughs in service performance. A good and stable performance, in turn, is a strong argument for companies in their communication to customers, as it may engender favorable perceptions of the service quality.
